Another Option
by Rick J'onzz
Summary: Yes another alternate ending. Played with the ending some and extrapolated how the Crucible would work. (And since I had no idea how Synthesis was even possible, there was no Green Option.)


I looked down at the glowy hologram of a little boy and thought to myself, "You have got to be kidding me." All the fighting, all the blood, all the sacrifice boiling down to two choices. Plan A – Destroy every single synthetic in the galaxy. Kill EDI. Hell, that'd be like blowing up the Normandy myself. Might as well kill Joker while I'm at it. Kill the Geth. After all I did, all the screaming and running and dying and begging, after ending the centuries of war between the Geth and the Quarians, kill them all. Plan B – upload my brain into the Reapers. Do just what the Illusive Man was planning. I wouldn't beat the Reapers, I'd become the Reapers. I didn't trust anyone with that power, not even me. Maybe the Shepard Reapers would be good guys at first. But I'm no angel. Somebody would piss me off and I'd destroy a civilization.

I was tired. Too many friends had died. Too many lives lost. Billions of sentient lives snuffed out. None of it necessary. I wanted to go back to the Normandy. Back to Liara. Goddess, I hoped she was alive. She was on the Normandy, and that ship had the best chance of getting out alive. But while I was ruminating, the Reapers were busy killing my alliance. My friends.

I'd spent the past few years doing the impossible. Maybe there was another way? "But I've proven that your logic is invalid. The Quarians and the Geth are fighting side by side out there right now. I've spent months with an AI driving the Normandy and she's as much a member of the crew as anyone else. Hell, she's in love with her human pilot. There's got to be another way."

The hologram paused for a second, the way EDI did when she did a trillion computations. "I am sorry, but I am limited by my programming. Over the cycles, the races that attempted to defeat the Reapers only devised the two options. Control the Reapers or destroy them and all of the other synthetics. If you have a suggestion for a third option, I can encode that into my core programming and those who attempt to construct the weapon in a future cycle may be able to make that choice. What third option do you suggest?"

I swore in Turian and threw in some words I'd heard Wrex say that I'd never found a translation for, other than "Krogan Profanity." The Protheans hadn't gotten this far. They ran out of time. All I had to do was push a button and the war would be over. I had the power. Save the galaxy. All it would cost is my soul. Either choice would damn me. I threw away the upload idea. I'd become a monster. Monster was too small a word but I couldn't think of a bigger one. That left genocide. Oh I would pull the plug on the Reapers and not shed a tear. But the Geth. EDI. Might as well put a bullet in my head after I pull the trigger on them.

And that's when it all snapped into place. One thought led to another. I laughed. I looked down at the star child. "Upload. I choose control."

The hologram pointed at a console. "Place your hands on the device there. "

Still laughing, I grabbed the rods and said, "you were wrong, kiddo. There was a third option." I focused my will. I needed to concentrate on The Plan. I couldn't let anything distract my thoughts. If I screwed this up, I'd be damned on a scale that never existed before.

And then I burned.

Joker's hands danced through the hepatic interfaces, plotting courses, evading fire, and pausing for just a microsecond for Garrus to fire the main gun and unleash hell. That part of his brain was on automatic – flying by muscle memory and instinct. His brain, on the other hand, worried about Shepard. She was the big sister he never had. She was family and she was in more danger than she'd ever been before, and considering the past three years, that was no mean feat. From her co-pilot's station, EDI sat placidly. The part of her that was in the synthetic body (hot, synthetic body, he corrected) was slower than the direct control EDI had over ship systems. Most pilots love their ships, he thought, but I had to take it to a whole new level.

EDI said in her perfectly calm tones, "energy buildup on the Crucible." Joker glanced at the screens. The Citadel arms were spreading wide like a flower. Orange light flickered across the superstructure. "Reaper ships are changing attack patterns."

Admiral Hackett's gravelly voice came over the comms. "All ships, retreat to rendezvous point."

"We can't leave her," argued Joker.

"We have to go," said Garrus, standing behind him quietly. "Shepard will be pissed if we're caught in the blast radius."

"But she's still in there," Joker protested.

Garrus smiled (or, at least, that's what Joker thought he was doing). "She'll be fine." He chuckled then grimaced. He held his side. His armor showed burns and a deep crack. "This is Shepard we're talking about here. I think Death is scared of her." Joker could tell Garrus only half believed it.

"The energy pulse is 91.231% likely to cause significant damage to the Normandy, Jeff." EDI's face was unreadable. Jeff understood. If that energy could kill the crap out of Reapers, what chance they did they have?

"Dammit," cursed Joker and the Normandy swung about, maximum burn for a point outside the Solar System, beyond even the Sol Mass Relay.

On Joker's monitor, the Crucible shone brighter than the sun. A pulse of energy exploded from the tip. "What the hell is that?" asked Garrus.

"Analyzing," answered EDI. "Due to speed of light delays, the actual burst happened 30 seconds ago. We have approximately 45 seconds until the pulse reaches us."

"Crap. Crap. Crap," muttered Jeff. He swiped his hands and lights dimmed across the ship. In a bad Scots accent he added, "I'm givin' you all she's got captain."

EDI continued. "The pulse appears to be a variation of an electromagnetic pulse. It is modulating at quantum speeds, carrying an incredibly complex signal."

"Whatever," interrupted Garrus. "What's it going to do?"

EDI paused. "In 32 seconds, the signal will wash over the ship. I have attempted to contact via quantum entanglement comms ships that are inside the field. I have gotten no responses. A picosecond burst from the Lexington suggests that the signal is acting like a virus. Other scans indicate that the Reaper ships have frozen in place."

A new voice came from behind them. Liara, the galaxy's best expert on the Protheans leaned on the last Prothean himself for support. "Of course. A single weapon couldn't defeat all the Reapers. Just blasting them out of the sky wouldn't work. There's too many of them. They'd swarm over and destroy it."

"18 seconds," said EDI calmly.

"What's it going to do to the Normandy?" asked Joker.

"Unknown," said EDI. "I suspect the virus will overwrite any synthetic, rooting out any tech derived from Reaper technology."

"But that'll kill you," said Joker, almost hysterical.

"I am aware of that, Jeff. Like any member of Commander Shepard's crew, I was willing to sacrifice my own existence in order to defeat the Reapers." She turned to Joker. "I am sorry, Jeff."

Joker snarled, "No. You're not leaving me. I'm going to jump ahead-"

EDI reached out a hand. "Jeff, the virus will have to cover the galaxy, presumably via the Mass Relays. There's nowhere to go."

Joker slumped. "But-"

EDI smiled. In a perfect imitation of an old movie, she added. "I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do."

Tears running down his face, Joker reached out to hold her hand. "I love you EDI."

"I love you too, Jeff. Goodbye."

Orange light flooded the ship, and then there was darkness.

The lights in the Normandy came back up a minute later. Liara was gently hugging Joker. EDI was slumped in her chair, blank eyes staring open. Joker still held her hand. Garrus had bent over to the main console to poke at the systems. Behind the group, more of the crew had come up to the cockpit, a crowd of nervous faces. Garrus stood up straight and turned to them. In a tone of command that sounded much like Shepard's, he said. "Okay people, we've got lights and life support because, well, look around. I need to know what else we've got. Tali, get back to Engineering. I want full systems report. Traynor, get comms up. I don't care if you have to stand out on the hull flashing a light in mouse code, but I want to know what's going on."

"Morse code, sir," corrected Traynor.

"I don't care what you call it, just go."

"Javik, Vega and Williams, when Tali tells you something's broke, fix it or find somebody who can." In a quieter voice, he added, "and if Chakwas is free, send her up here." To his surprise, none of them argued. Shepard had them well trained, he thought. _Has!_ Has them well trained.

He turned back to Joker and Liara. Liara was hugging Joker who was crying. Liara's face was as plain as if there were text hovering over her. Shepard could be dead too. She was being strong right now, but she wouldn't last. Garrus wasn't sure he would either. He quietly pecked at an auxiliary console. It flashed that the system was coming up and please be patient. Hopefully they weren't about to run into a planet or something, but just looking out the window, he didn't see anything looming. Small blessing that.

A moment passed. Joker gently pushed Liara away when his console flashed back into existence. "EDI?" he asked in a small voice. No answer. He swiped at some buttons and cleared his throat. "Maneuvering thrusters are online. Short range sensors are up. I'm going to point us at the rendezvous point, but at current speed it'll be a month or two until we get there."

Traynor ran back to the bridge. "We've got nothing but static on comms right now. Too much interference. But I was looking at the logs of the last communications we received. There was a second signal, buried in the first. It was using the Normandy's prefix codes."

Garrus sighed. "And that means what?"

"It was a message, sir. Using Commander Shepard's codes."

All heads turned. Liara was the first to speak. "What… what did she say?"

Traynor looked down at her omni-tool. "I'm working on that. There was a lot of data and it wasn't in a format I can recognize."

"Define a lot," asked Garrus, irritation starting to tug at his mandibles.

"Around 2.5 petabyes of data."

"Holy crap," said Joker. "That's some message."

A burst of static from Traynor's omnitool startled them. She wiggled her fingers. "Getting a signal. Admiral Hackett on a general frequency."

"—engage the Reapers. I repeat, when your ships recover, do not engage. Preliminary scans show they are all on a direct course with the sun. We have already seen five Sovereign class Reapers dive into the sun. Just get out of their way, people. This is Admiral Hackett to all ships who can hear this. Do not engage the Reapers. I repeat." Traynor closed her fist. "It's on a loop. I'll let you know if we get anything else."

"Holy crap," whispered Joker. "We won." His eyes were wet but he had a smile on his face.

"By the goddess… we won." Liara slumped. "All those millennia, all those lives lost in every cycle going back who knows how far. And we won?" Her eyes were wide. "I can't believe it."

"Well," drawled Garrus. "Those guys didn't have Shepard."

Joker and Liara laughed. Traynor smiled too, but it was laced with bone tiredness. "I'm… I'm going to work on that signal."

The deck under their feet hummed. "Drive's back," said Joker. "Sensors and comms are still full of static. Computers are still coming up. They're taking too long," he fretted. He turned to look at the slumped mechanoid in the chair next to him. "Come back, babe."

Liara flicked on her omni-tool as well, it connected to the ship's network and she looked at the readouts. "The computers are up, but none-responsive. A diagnostic shows there's massive amounts of data being moved around. Goddess, the computer just erased the ship's library."

"Did we get a virus? Why would we get a virus? We're not Reaper tech." wondered Garrus.

"What about EDI?" asked Joker. "Is she still there?"

"The AI core doesn't appear to have lost any data. But it's incredibly busy. "

"EDI?" shouted Joker. "EDI? Are you there?"

"She's not taking any inputs. Not even ship data."

"Cut the links to the rest of the ship. If she's got a virus, we need to make sure she doesn't infect the rest of the Normandy," ordered Garrus.

"Can't. When we released the locks on her during the Collector attack, she's fully integrated. "

"Dammit." Garrus flicked on his Omni-tool. "This is Garrus Vakarian. We may have to abandon ship and quickly. Everyone suit up."

"Holy shit," said Joker. "EDI?" Garrus and Liara turned. The mech was twitching, like an epileptic fit.

Garrus grimaced and grabbed her. "Help me get her out of the chair. She might kick something important."

With a blue flash of light, the mechanoid became weightless. Garrus pulled her free as easy as a balloon and laid her on the floor. Joker got up but Garrus put a hand on him. "She's stronger than me and made of metal. She flairs around and you'll have all sorts of new broken bones to deal with. Liara, hold her steady." The blue glow flickered and while her head rolled side to side and her fingers twitched, the gross body movements stopped.

Garrus pulled out his pistol and checked it.

"What the hell is that for?" asked Joker.

Garrus adjusted the pistol to fire incendiary rounds. "If she's EDI then it's for nothing. If she's the evil Cerberus spy mech, then I'm not going to give her a chance to do anything unwise."

"Look," said Liara. "She's growing skin." When they had first encountered the Cerberus infiltrator mech, it looked completely human. EDI had informed them that the body was capable of growing artificial flesh over the endoskeleton, but as she was herself artificial, she felt the crew would interact more efficiently looking like a robot instead of a flesh and blood person. Joker had needled her to give flesh a try. He even showed her a picture of a knockout platinum blonde in a tight red dress, but she refused.

Garrus chambered a round. "Could be she's rebooting as Dr Eva Core. Stand back." He also ordered into his comms, "Tali, get to the bridge now. We need you."

On the floor, the artificial skin was changing color. Initially, it had been waxy and white, presumably the base material. It was taking on more human tones and undulating as it refined itself.

"That's kind of gross," said Joker.

"Little bit," agreed Garrus.

Liara said nothing, but held her breath.

The door burst open and Tali ran in. "What's going on? Oh?" Her omni-tool, a present from the chief of the X57 mining asteroid after they saved his life (and the lives of everyone on Terra Nova) blazed to light. "It's downloading data too. Ship's wireless is clear enough. Keelah, that's a lot of data."

"Two point five petabytes?" asked Liara, finally daring to breathe.

"Yes. How did you know?"

Liara let go with the biotic field and knelt next to the mechanoid. The twitching had stopped. Joker started to kneel next to her. "Faith," Liara said quietly.

Joker wiped his brow. "She's getting a face now. And her hair's…"

Garrus gasped. Tali knelt down next to the others. Thick red hair coiled and wriggled into a short, familiar cut. A scar appeared on the cheek. The mechanoid's arms and legs adjusted in length. Artificial muscle tone appeared.

Green eyes opened. "Hi guys. Miss me?" asked Commander Shepard.

A long moment passed. Shepard sat up and looked down at herself. Joker cleared his throat. "Um, Commander. I can't help but notice you're naked."

Liara pounced on Shepard, hugging her and crying and laughing.

Jeff's face echoed Liara's joy, but then it fell. "EDI?" he whispered.

A ball of light appeared. "Yes Jeff?"

"EDI?" asked Joker again.

"Yes Jeff."

Shepard got to her feet, slowly. "I said it before, but I'll say it again. Thank you EDI." Tali opened up one of her many pouches and a small roll of shiny cloth unrolled into a large reflective blanket. She offered it to Shepard, who gratefully wrapped it around herself.

"It's all right, Shepard. I have the full specs for the mechanoid frame and can arrange for a replacement to be manufactured. I even have some upgrades in mind. I'm also considering twinning myself into multiple mechanoids to better serve the ship." Joker stared off into space thoughtfully, an evil twinkle in his eye.

Garrus looked at his best friend. "So, not to sound ungrateful, but how is it you're not dead?"

"Well, in one sense, I am dead. My body is a pile of ash in the Crucible's firing chamber." Everyone looked at her incredulously. "But my mind…" She tapped the side of her head. "It's all here."

EDI's voice gently corrected. "Actually, the main data storage in in your midsection."

Shepard laughed. "Okay." She tapped her belly. "It's all here then."

"Answer the question," asked Garrus again. For the first time, Shepard noticed his gun was still held lightly at his side.

Shepard noticed it and sighed. "You want me to tell you something only we know. How about that time we went target shooting on the Citadel? Or details about Dr Saleon? Or when we hunted down Sidonis?"

"All that is facts," said Garrus. If the Reapers copied your head-"

Shepard interrupted. "What Reapers? Every one of them in the system should be random atoms scattered near the sun. What the hell do I have to do to prove-"

Liara wrapped Shepard in her arms and started kissing her. It was full of passion and life and after a moment even Joker started to feel a little embarrassed. A moment later, she broke the kiss and smiled. "It's her."

"Okay. I'm convinced," said Tali, who coughed nervously.

"I dunno. Maybe you should do it again?" said Joker.

Liara laughed. Shepard glared.

"Look, I'm going to have to tell this story a thousand times. But I'd rather tell it to my family just once."

The Normandy was not a large ship and rumors can travel faster than the mass drive. The entire crew crowded into the mess hall. Shepard, dressed in sweats and her N7 hoodie, stood behind the main dining table. Her crew had always looked at her with respect. Now some faces were slack with shock. Shepard had come back from the dead once before, so this was a little easier for them to take. EDI was routing a shipboard camera to the QE communicator so Admiral Hackett could watch from his own carrier, slowly limping back to Earth along with the rest of the fleet. The QE comms had been practically jammed with traffic, everyone reporting that the Reapers were dead. From Sol to Tuchanka to Thessia to Rannoch, the virus was spreading first through the mass relays and then at the speed of light to systems without mass relays. The Reapers were in disarray. As they lost contact with the other ships, they jumped to those systems to act as reinforcements. When they did, they crossed the pulse and were infected. Some Reapers had deduced what was happening and were attempting to flee. But the cold truth of it was that, no matter where they went, eventually the virus would catch them. The pulse wasn't slowing down or losing cohesion. Even if they ran to the Dark Space between galaxies, the pulse would catch them eventually. Hackett had ordered repair crews to examine the damaged mass relays but for now, at this moment, the galaxy collectively said "we're taking the rest of today off."

Shepard told them all of it. From the last run to the beam, to the Illusive Man's fall, to Anderson's death to the conversation with the Star Child. "I was close. So close to just pushing the button and killing the Reapers. And I thought I might as well put a bullet in my head after that because I didn't think I could live with myself after killing so many innocents. And that's when I realized it. I knew that, no matter how good my intentions would have been at the start, eventually-"

"Eventually you'd punch a reporter for asking a stupid question and Reapers have a pretty mean left hook," interrupted Garrus.

Shepard laughed. It felt… different in this body. She didn't breathe, though the artificial muscles and flesh pumped air in and out. But it was for show. She knew she could eat, but that she also knew that the body would covert the mass to energy in a biochemical furnace in her midsection. Kissing Liara felt right, thank the Goddess. She realized in that instant. "No little blue kids," and she felt a deep sadness. What the hell, they could adopt. She rubbed her face absently and looked at the crowd. "Right. But I knew I could hold out for a little while. So I let the Crucible upload me into the Reapers. Once the copy of me was in there, I'd do two things." She held out a finger. "One, tell all the damn husks and all their evil cousins to shut down. Two, find the nearest star and head for it, full speed." She smiled. "Oh, and the first Reaper that got infected was to beam my memories to the Normandy, with instructions for EDI."

"Uh, how did you know that EDI could, um, stuff you in that body?" asked Williams. She was holding it together, but Shepard knew she was freaking out, again. Miss Trust Issues, thought Shepard. Also, according to Williams' religion, only one dude was supposed to have come back from the dead and Shepard had just done it _again._

"She didn't," said EDI over the ship's intercom. "She had no idea if it was even possible. I confess I was not sure it would work either. Fortunately, the Crucible had done most of the work for me. Shepard's personality matrix was already deconstructed and transformed into a datastream designed to be uploaded into artificial constructs."

"But what if you didn't fit," asked Joker. "I mean, EDI said she couldn't fit all of herself into, you, her, the body." He waved his hands. "You know what I mean."

EDI answered, "I did not fit because my entire data matrix contains five thousand three hundred sixty two petabytes of information. My personality matrix is much smaller, but I wished to remain as part of the Normandy. I was concerned that I might have… issues with a copy of me walking around getting to experience what I could not."

Vega elbowed Cortez in the ribs and whispered. "She wanted to get biz-ay with Joker and didn't want to get jealous of herself."

EDI heard that and would have confirmed it, but knew that humans didn't like it when they felt she was eavesdropping on them, even though due to the onboard audio and video pickups, she was constantly listening and watching them do everything. Joker had told her he thought it was weird to have her watching him go to the bathroom, so she started auto-deleting those images once he was finished. As a computer, she could "forget it" when asked. So she continued her explanation. "I had to make room in the ship's computers for Shepard, as well as multiple backup copies."

"Wait, you had multiple mes in there?" asked Shepard.

"If the upload failed, I wanted to make sure I had an intact copy so I could try again, once a cause of failure had been determined and appropriate measures could be taken. However, after verifying the download had successfully completed, I did not need them anymore." EDI considered telling the crew the truth, that she still had redundant copies of Shepard's matrix in case some unforeseen hardware interface with the mechanoid resulted, but she was 99.61254% sure that there would not be. But she was very careful and very protective of Shepard. EDI considered her to be something like an older sister. Someone she could ask for advice and shared experiences as being constructs of Cerberus. While the archive itself was gone, EDI remembered having the thought "Sisters share clothing when needed" while uploading Shepard. In time, EDI considered asking Shepard for permission to upload Shepard into the Geth matrix. But she also calculated that it would take at least 13 years for Shepard to be accepting enough of her new form that she might consider allowing it.

Shepard chewed her lip. It was an old habit. The crew seemed to be taking this in stride. But then, they had been doing seven impossible things before breakfast each day for some time.

Hackett's voice came over the intercom. "Saying thank you seems to be the understatement of the millennium, but what the hell. Get used to it because every sentient of every species is going to line up to say it. I'm going to want a more detailed report down the line, but get some rest. You earned it."

The next half hour was a blur. Everyone hugged Shepard. The natural reaction to coming close to death and living was evident. Couples were starting to pair off and find a quiet corner. After coming so close to death, it was natural. Tali and Garrus were talking quietly in a corner. Ash had grabbed Vega's hand and dragged him off. Allers was telling Traynor that she would love to learn to play chess. Joker started to leave but Shepard caught up and jumped in the elevator after him. "Joker, I feel like I should apologize or thank you or something. I mean, everyone's… well. And I kind of stole your girlfriend's body."

Joker started laughing. He looked at her, busted out laughing and looked away. Shepard was flummoxed. So she waited. He rubbed a tear of laughter away and caught his breath. "Shepard, EDI and I fell for each other when she was just a voice. You were the one who gave both of us the guts to admit it. Yeah, I don't mind sayin' I was hoping to do another victory lap around the cockpit, but it's cool. We can wait." The elevator stopped and Joker got out. "Go back to the party. It's cool."

The elevator doors started to close. Shepard held out her hand, blocking the doors and they slid back open.

"Wait? Another victory lap around the cockpit. Were you two…."

EDI's voice came over the intercom. "Do you really want to know the answer to that, Commander?"

Shepard pulled her hand back. "No. I really don't." The elevator doors slid closed. Down on the crew level, the door opened again. Liara was standing there. "Wanna come see my collection of model spaceships, babe?"

Liara laughed. "Why yes. I have often been fascinated with collections of model spaceships." She stepped into the elevator and it took them up to Shepard's quarters.

The door closed behind them. At the same time, they both said "there's something we need to talk about." They laughed. Then they each said, "you first." They laughed even harder. They sat down on the couch. Shepard kicked off her sneakers. "I am going to pull rank and go first."

She turned to look at Liara. "I know that we'd talked about living happily ever after with lots of little blue babies. But I can't now. And I'm a robot now. That's got to be a little weird for you. So if-"

Liara put her hand over Shepard's mouth. "Stop." She pulled her hand away.

"But Lia-" started Shepard. And the hand covered her mouth again.

"I'm pregnant," said Liara. "I may have, um, fibbed a little."

"The star thing. That wasn't just a gift was it?"

"It was a gift. A gift of my heart. I was so afraid you were going to die and I'd have nothing left of you. I'm sorry. I should have said. I should have-"

Shepard put her hand over Liara's mouth. "Stop." She slid her hand across Liara's cheek. "It's awesome." Her eyes got a little misty. "Anderson said I'd be a good mom. That was one of the last things he said to me."

"He's right. We're going to be great moms." Liara paused, then looked to the ceiling. "EDI, how long will this body, um, last?"

"Unknown," answered EDI. "The mechanoid frame will last at least six hundred years, with proper maintenance. But the body's computer matrix was not designed to hold an organic mind, even one properly formatted to be uploaded. There may be unforeseen mechanical or psychological issues."

Shepard leaned forward, resting her head on Liara's. "I fell in love you with when I wasn't sure I'd make it through the year. I told you I'd be with you forever on the way to a mission everyone said was suicide. I committed myself to you before going into battle with a force that hasn't lost a war in a gazillion years. I don't care how many days I have left, as long as I have them with you next to me."

"That's beautiful," whispered Liara. "When did you become a poet?" She looked into Shepard's eyes.

"I just needed the right inspiration." She got a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Wanna Embrace Eternity?"

"I thought you'd never ask."


End file.
